310 SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON'S ADDRESS— AFRICA. [May 23, 1859. 



into the Mediterranean, Captain Spratt proves, that the argu- 

 ments used by M. Lesseps, as drawn from other localities in 

 favour of his project, are, in fact, directly hostile to it. Thus, the 

 Malamocco entrance to Venice is to the windward side of the river 

 Po, and therefore freed from its deltoid deposits, just as Alexandria 

 is exempted from those of the Nile. Again, in the Black Sea the 

 deltoid accumulations of the mouth of the Danube are chiefly to the 

 leeward of its mouth, whilst in both these cases powerful currents 

 tend to keep open channels which do not exist in the sluggish water 

 of the bay of Pelusium. 



~ In corroboration of his statements, numerous specimens of sand 

 and mud, brought up by the dredgings of Captain Spratt, are de- 

 posited in the Museum of Practical Geology; and his pregnant 

 words which follow may well be commended to the attentive con- 

 sideration of the French Government and nation, before they get 

 further involved in carrying out the project of a great ship canal : — 



" In a gigantic engineering project, involving such an enormous 

 outlay for its construction as well as its annua] maintenance, as these 

 facts suggest, it is necessary that the commercial interests invited 

 to speculate in it should thoroughly understand it, so as to form an 

 opinion whether millions of money will not be fruitlessly lost in the 

 depths of the sea, as I must believe will be the case. The experience 

 of the past in the difficulties of engineering against similar hydraulic 

 and physical conditions elsewhere should not be forgotten, and to 

 none are such facts as are here stated of more value and of more 

 real importance than to M. Lesseps and the International Commis- 

 sion. At least, such is the humble opinion of one whose only object 

 is to arrive at the truth of nature's laws, and to suggest to others 

 the consideration of those truths, before blindly engineering against 

 them, and thence to be certain of the cost and results before under- 

 taking a work that will have to contend against so vast an amount 

 of physical difficulties in perpetuity." 



These conclusions of Captain Spratt are entirely in unison with 

 the observations of my gallant friend Commander Pim, communi- 

 cated to our Society at one of our recent meetings, as resulting from 

 a visit to Egypt, which he made when he was the companion of our 

 associate, Mr. Eobert Stephenson. That eminent civil engineer has 

 for some time, indeed, arrived at a similar opinion, and has put 

 forth other arguments which seem to me to be as unanswerable as 

 those of Captain Spratt. 



The Niger Expedition. — The unfortunate shipwreck of the Pleiad on 

 the rocks near Eabba, and the check given to the expedition under 



